Timelines
by ynyn
Summary: It was supposed to be the final fight to decide the fate of Remnant. Instead, in a desperate attempt to survive, Ruby Rose finds herself 12 years in the past. How? She can't explain. One thing she knows for certain: this is a chance she can't let go to waste./ WhiteRose/ Rated M/ Warnings Inside
1. 12 Years

**AN:** Hello dear RWBY community! This is the start of my second story. If you haven't read my first one yet, which I published yesterday, I hope you can give it a try if you like Neo and Roman and don't mind OCs!

Shameless self-advertising aside, this story is about time travel Ruby. I sought long and hard but couldn't really find anything of this kind that tickled my fancy. It either was not completed or the wrong pairing or some Joane harem kind of fic or just a Joane MC fic. Yeah, not that big of a fan of him. Anywho, there was one fic I enjoyed to a certain extend and that was **Remnant's Reclaimer** by **Hysterical Clerical Hijinks** , which unfortunately was both the wrong pairing and unfinished. So, with some inspiration from RR, I decided to make my own time travel fic. I hope you enjoy it!

Some warnings: _graphic depictions of violence, sexual situations (possibly), language_

* * *

Standing at the cliff and staring at the gravestones of her fallen teammates, her comrades and friends, her sister, father and uncle, Ruby Rose let her thoughts wander. The full-scale war against Salem had been going on for almost 12 years now. She had been but a 15-year-old teenager when it began, when Beacon fell. She had seen Pyrrha die, she had defended Haven against that traitorous coward Lionheart, Cinder and her cronies.

In her young age, instead of learning and living her teenager years to its fullest she was thrust into war. Granted, she _did_ train to become a huntress, she wanted to fight and defend people but not like this. War of this scale was not what she wanted. Her dream was defending villages, defending travellers, defending city gates against Grimm. Instead, in the past 12 years, she changed from a huntress trainee to a warrior, a killing machine. Ruby took no satisfaction from taking someone's life. There was nothing glorious, nothing pleasurable in killing people but at this point it didn't plague her anymore. It was war, it was either her or them. Traitors didn't deserve to survive a war so they had to die; they _would_ die. One way or another, a traitor's life was forfeit once they faced her in battle. If they didn't surrender to her she would kill them in the battlefield and it rarely ever was a clean kill; the drawbacks of using a scythe. If they did surrender however, they would be court-martialled and usually their punishment would be death.

So, one way or another, traitors died and she was glad they did. To 27-year-old Ruby Rose traitors were worse than Cinder ever was or Salem could ever be. They betrayed their friends, their freedom. They betrayed their families. But worst of all, it was a traitor that killed Weiss Schnee.

Weiss and she had been together since half a year after they stopped the attempt on Haven. Through all the destruction and death, it was Weiss that kept Ruby's sanity intact until she died three years ago. Stabbed from behind through her heart.

She couldn't even say goodbye.

Getting down on one knee, Ruby touched all of their makeshift gravestones, lingering on Weiss'.

"This is it," she whispered, "I'll either join you all and this world will finally crumble or I'll somehow manage it and live the rest of my life alone."

With a wary and tired sigh, she got up, a finger touching the scar running down over her right eye, a gift from Tyrian Callows as revenge after she cut off his tail, causing him to flee which resulted in severe and years long punishment by Salem. He wasn't mentally stable to begin with but he was worse when she saw him again after their first meeting.

Losing that eye didn't matter much to her though; she could still see with it but in all honesty, it was basically blind after it started to bleed when she used her silver eyes on an army of Grimm.

Taking a breath, she gathered her thoughts before pulling the hood of her trademark red cloak over her head, starting her journey to the fight that would ultimately decide the fate of Remnant.

* * *

Cutting her way through Grimm didn't even take much effort anymore. They were simple-minded creatures, even the intelligent ones. They had no souls, no sentience and she had grown into a most formidable huntress. Powerful, strong, agile and deadly and, most importantly, no more helpless without Crescent Rose.

It didn't take long for her to see her target.

Salem had left her hideout a couple years ago to further advance and ensure the destruction of Remnant. Most of her officers, her high ranked cronies were dead at this point but even more important names died on Ruby's side. Still, Ruby stood steadfast and lead the small resistance that remained so Salem finally showed herself to snuff it out.

The fight between the two went on for two years but remained undecided.

Until now.

"Ruby Rose. Have you finally decided to end this?" Salem stared at her with her black and crimson eyes.

Ruby didn't answer, instead pulled out Crescent and immediately switched it to its Scythe Form.

The queen of the Grimm smirked at her. "Good enough."

With that, she charged at Ruby who immediately dodged with her semblance and attempted to attack her opponent from behind with an overhead spin attack with the queen blocked with her forearms, smirking at the huntress. Ruby took the opportunity and fired a point black dust round at Salem, causing an explosion that pushed her back but she easily landed back on her feet, waiting for the dust to clear. She had no illusions that Salem would be harmed in any way and she was proven right as the Grimm queen stepped out of the dust, unscathed.

"Is this all the last huntress can do?"

Not reacting to her taunts, Ruby charged at Salem with her semblance, using a wild combination of slashes and spins which were blocked by her opponent. It looked like she was advancing, slowly getting the upper hand but once Salem got a grip on Crescent's blade with one and hit her in the stomach with the palm of her other hand, ultimately sending her flying, she realized she was wrong about that assumption.

Getting up from the rubble she created as she crashed into the wall of a building, she frowned back at the smirking Salem.

She morphed Crescent back into its rifle form and changed the clip from explosive rounds to freezing rounds before activating her semblance once more.

"Always the same tricks, huntress. I am starting to get disappointed." Salem looked around her, taking in the storm of rose petals surrounding her before suddenly seemingly hundreds of shots were fired at the same time.

She felt the thin coating of ice starting to appear on her body before the petals collected at a single point and charged at her, a spinning Ruby with her scythe appearing, the layer of ice, as thin as it was, enough to minimally slow Salem's movement and allowing Ruby with her speed to land a hit on Salem's hard Grimm skin, managing a small crack as she blew the queen across the street and into crashed and burnt out bullhead. Not wasting a moment with this opportunity, Ruby quickly changed her clip back to the explosive dust rounds, lodged Crescent's blade onto the street and fired seemingly never-ending explosions to the spot Salem crashed into.

As suddenly a shadow appeared around her, Ruby quickly dashed away before Salem landed on the spot she was at just a moment ago. A small amount of satisfaction coursed through her as she saw that she caused the queen to bleed, even if after all those attacks it was just a cut on her cheek.

Salem herself wasn't as amused about that fact as Ruby, if the angry frown was any indicator. "You will regret this, huntress."

Ruby sighed to herself. _'This is hopeless,'_ she thought to herself. _'All my power, all my speed and I barely scratch her. Is this why you died, mum?'_

Switching Crescent back to its compact form, she holstered it on her lower back, staring at Salem for only a moment before charging at her. Salem prepared to black but Ruby split her semblances before connecting it back behind the Grimm queen, grabbing one of her arms, turning her around and landing a punch on her face. She then took the other arm, holding them both firmly in her grasp and activated her silver eye, point blank.

"No!" Salem, feeling the burning sensation on herself, kicked Ruby with one foot in her stomach, interrupting the huntress in the process. It was still a lot of damage done to her, enraging her immensely. She looked down at her body, her arms shaking, angering her even more. The earth shook beneath her feet, cracking. Advancing towards the struggling huntress, the cracks widened more and more, causing Ruby to scramble away before she got back on her feet.

For the first time during this fight her emotions were clearly visible on her face as her eye was wide once she saw what was happening.

"This will be the end of you, Ruby Rose. You will regret ever using your cursed eyes against me!" Salem then let out an eldritch scream and Ruby saw the cracks advancing faster and faster as everything surrounding Salem seemed to turn to dust; buildings, signs, the streets- nothing was spared.

Ruby dodged away, jumped and ran. She saw several guerrilla fighters hiding out in buildings look out from windows, curious about what was going on before they evaporated with the building into a mixture of grey with a bit of red in it.

She activated her semblance and ran as fast as she could once she saw she couldn't outrun whatever Salem was doing but even with her semblance it still closed in on her.

Desperate, Ruby poured all she had, all of her aura into her semblance, closing her eyes as she felt the wind whip against her before a pressure unlike anything she ever felt before surrounded her as everything went black.

* * *

A silver eye slowly fluttered open, followed by a low groan. Rolling onto her side, Ruby shakily used an arm to support herself before getting back onto her feet. Looking around herself, she saw red leaves surrounding her. As far as she could see, everything seemed to be covered in red. There was only one place in Vale she knew that looked like this and it was Forever Fall but that was impossible. It was overrun by Grimm and what they didn't destroy they corrupted.

Shaking her head, she checked her lower back for Crescent even as she felt its weight but better safe than sorry. Once satisfied with the feel of steel on her fingertips, Ruby pulled her hood over her head and slowly began her trek southwards after she checked her compass.

Her eye took her surroundings in, the surreality of it all getting to her. The huntress didn't understand how this was possible, how she could be here in what could only be Forever Fall, a forest that was _destroyed_ and made inhabitable for anything other than Grimm. It made no sense whatsoever.

Trying to remember what happened wasn't helping her either; her mind was fuzzy from the time she was fleeing from Salem's attack onwards. Yes, she was running and pushed her semblance beyond its limits but from then on? Blank.

Walking up a small slope Ruby's eye widened at the sight of an intact air bus station ahead of her and she almost fainted when she saw Beacon Tower in the horizon beyond the deep cliff of Forever Fall.

This simply wasn't possible. This couldn't be.

Once she reached the console of the air bus station a choked gasp escaped her before her legs gave away.

She had to be dead. Or at least in a deep, very deep coma. There was no other explanation why she was suddenly twelve years in the past.

Pulling her legs up to her chest, Ruby rested her head on her folded arms, trying to make sense of everything. How was this possible? How was it possible for anyone at all to travel into the past? What did that mean for _her_ time? Why was she here in her current body? Were there different parallel timelines? What were the consequences of her being here?

There were so many questions running through her head, making her dizzy, confusing her and she had no answers to any of them.

But there was one thought, one silent thought in the far recesses of her mind she zoned in on. Maybe, just _maybe_ she could change things here, for this timeline. She knew things. She saw things. She learned things. There could be things done differently here, approached differently.

A few more moments to gather herself were definitely needed before she took some calming breaths. Then, standing back up, Ruby approached the console once more to call for an airbus to take her to Beacon.

She had things to do.

* * *

Stepping out of that air bus and into the courtyard of Beacon Academy brought unreal amounts of melancholy with it. The feeling of standing here, of what was supposed to be her home, her school was something she never thought she'd experience again.

And yet, here she was. Fate, the universe, destiny- whatever it was that brought her back here surely had a wicked sense of humour.

With a strengthening breath, the huntress began to walk up the courtyard, making sure to take in the smell, the sight of her former school. She missed this, she truly did.

It didn't take her too long and she was at the amphitheatre. She remembered when Ozpin held his welcoming speech for the new cadets. She remembered how annoyed Weiss was with her and how awkward her 15-year-old self was. Those were good times, innocent times. Her biggest worry back then was making Weiss like her.

In the end she succeeded but unfortunately, they had no real time or peace of mind to make the most of it. Fleeting moments were all they had. Maybe this timeline's Ruby would have more luck but would she even be into Weiss like she was? Would Weiss even like her back?

A few stray students threw her the odd look as she passed through the amphitheatre and exited it on the other side to head to the Tower. She paid them no heed and even though her red cloak was kind of a 'Ruby-only-thing' she knew that no one would think that she was a Ruby Rose from the future.

Once she reached the tower she looked up, remembering Pyrrha's death. Her family didn't even have a body to bury as Cinder turned it to ash after shooting her arrow.

Shaking her head, Ruby entered the tower but saw nobody at the reception. With a shrug she stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to the headmaster's office.

Upon arrival she stepped out and stood in front of the door before taking another deep breath. Then, after knocking, she waited a couple moments until a voice she hadn't heard in 12 years called her in. With shaking hands, she opened the door to the office and, with wide eyes never leaving her former headmaster, closed it behind her.

"Professor Ozpin."

The millennia old man…or soul, which was probably more accurate, had his intelligent eyes firmly on her, his elbows resting on his desk, his hands folded. "And who might you be, if I may ask?" He motioned for her to sit down on a chair, his gaze never leaving her. "I have to admit, your arrival certainly peaked my interest and I am very curious why the first person you sought out would be me."

Ruby sat down across from him, making sure to make eye contact with him and satisfied to see his eyes widen as he saw her silver iris. "The first thing you told me when we met was that I have silver eyes."

"That's…impossible." The Beacon headmaster never lost his composure but he had no other chance here.

"We have to talk, Professor."

* * *

There was a long silence after Ruby told her tale, of the bleak future that awaited this timeline. Ozpin was standing at a large window, staring outside with his arms folded behind his back, his usual coffee forgotten on his desk.

"That is certainly troubling, Ruby," he finally spoke, "and I still have trouble trying to grasp onto the concept of…time travel, for lack of a better wording."

"I still can't believe it either but here I am." Ruby retorted with outstretched arms. "I told you everything I know, including your soul-merging-reincarnation thing. How else would I know about that? How would I know about Blake, about Weiss? How would I know about Raven being the Spring Maiden?"

"I understand, I believe but…" He turned around, giving her an apologetic look. "You made something impossible possible."

"Yeah…"

"So, how do you propose we proceed from here?"

Ruby frowned and chewed on her bottom lip as she stared down at her lap. "I want you to tell a select group of your students the truth…and I mean team RWBY."

"And why would that be?"

"Because half-truths, lies and secrets are what lost us Beacon in my timeline. You should trust those four at least. I am aware that you can't tell everyone something this big but…lives are at stake here. Teenagers who have their whole futures ahead of them. If they know what's up then they can prepare accordingly, then they have a bigger and better chance to fight when it is needed. For the real fights I am here now but if worse comes to worst then they should be prepared."

Ozpin was deep in thought for a few moments before looking back up at her. "What about your uncle? Your father?"

"They'll know something's up when they see me so might as well."

"Very well then," Ozpin gave her a small smile as he took out his scroll, "I will send Glynda a message to join us with team RWBY once class is over. This should make for an interesting meeting."

On _that_ Ruby agreed with him.


	2. The Meeting

**AN:** Thank you everyone for the great reception this story got after only its first chapter! It really motivated me to go and write the second and here it is! Seeing reviews but also constructive criticism is what makes this worthwhile. Seeing people enjoy your work and driving you to better yourself is the best thing about writing for me. Thank you all! I hope you enjoy this chapter at least as much as the first!

 **merendinoemiliano:** Thank you for being the first to review! However, it was stated several times in the show that the 'monsters they fight' have no souls. They are just beasts without Aura, which is the manifestation of one's soul and, since Grimm lack aura they lack souls.

 **Revia the Starf:** To be fair, that was just me being lazy but I changed it here and used the full name of Crescent Rose instead of just Crescent. I'll change it when I have the time in the first chapter too. Sorry about that :P

 **JackTheSpades:** Oh, yes, I am aware of that. I'll definitely want to finish this but wanting and actually doing are two separate things, amirite? Hm, yeah, that eyepatch thing. I don't know, it always feels so pirate-y to me and I think a visible scar is kind of more badass. Just imagine my future Ruby's scar looking like Roronoa Zoro's from One Piece post reunion. That looks badass so I went for that look instead of the eyepatch. Hope you can live with that :P

* * *

Ruby was comfortably sitting in her chair as Ozpin was busy doing whatever a headmaster of Beacon Academy had to do. Her one good eye was closed as she was just soaking in the serenity and peace of not having to fight, of not having to burden herself with the survival of an entire world. Sure, eventually she had to go back to the frontlines, in this timeline, but for now, for a few days or months or maybe even weeks she could savour the calm and quiet of not having to fight.

It was a feeling that was by no so foreign to her but not unwelcome. She could barely- if at all- remember what it was like to be nothing but a student here, to go out on adventures with her friends and teammates. The romanticism with which she viewed the world when was 15 was snuffed out quickly in the war.

Maybe she could save some of the innocence of her younger self in this timeline. It would be a good deed, surely. But she wondered what the changes here might do to her. Was she an entirely separate entity in this timeline? Was she connected to her younger self somehow so that things affecting her younger self might affect her?

It was impossible to tell without witnessing it. What Ruby accomplished was nothing short of a miracle, unheard of to this day and would probably never be heard of again. Without witnessing any of the answers to her questions she would never be able to answer them on her own.

But there was time for that. For now, she was content with relaxing for the first time in years.

She felt Ozpin's eyes on her and opened her one, looking back at him, waiting for him to say what was on his mind.

"You seem at peace."

"After fighting a war that took everything from me for 12 years this is a nice change of pace," she answered him mirthlessly, "so I just enjoy it while I can."

"Understandable." Keeping his gaze on her for a while longer, he spoke up again. "How are you feeling otherwise? I would expect you to be somewhat nervous about meeting team RWBY."

Ruby just chuckled lowly at that, a small smirk on her face as she first looked to the side and then at Ozpin. "I honestly am not. I don't know why but…I just don't know. Maybe seeing Weiss, Yang and Blake alive again will do something but I know I don't belong to this world. They are not _my_ friends but this timeline's Ruby's."

Before Ozpin could respond to that something caught an eye on his monitor. "Ah, it looks like our small meeting is about to begin."

As if on cue, the door to the office opened, revealing Glynda Goodwitch and team RWBY, all of them with similar looks of confusion and curiosity on their faces. "Is there a reason for calling the students and me here, Professor?" Glynda asked him, slight annoyance evident in her voice.

"Indeed, there is." Motioning for the four to stay where they were he then turned his gaze back to the person seated across from him, making the five new arrivals even more curious.

Ruby, with a sigh, slowly got up from her chair, revealing her red cloak which garnered a few surprised gasps from team RWBY as they gazed from their Ruby to the stranger and back again before they could see the new Ruby's face, drawing shocked a shocked gasp from Glynda and blank stares from the rest.

Ruby, with a small smile, looked the younger versions of her former teammates and her former teacher, before she gave a slight nod. "Hi, Professor Goodwitch. Team RWBY." Despite herself, she had to admit that her heart ached at seeing her former teammates again in their teenage years, innocent, unaware of what was lurking out there. How lucky they were.

Yang was the first to find her voice again. "Uh…who are you? You can't…you can't be Summer…can you?"

Ruby couldn't help but let out a small laugh at that, even as it died quickly at seeing her younger version's brief glimmer of hope in her eyes. "No…she's dead, unfortunately." Sighing at the disappointed and teary eyes of little Ruby, grown up Ruby addressed her directly. "I'm sorry, Ruby. I wish it were different, I really do."

"So, _who are you_?" Glynda asked her this time.

Feeling all eyes on her Ruby took a breath before answering. "Ruby Rose…from 12 years in the future."

At first there was no reaction until Weiss scoffed at her. "Nonsense. Utterly impossible and, to be frank, I am appalled that I was dragged away from my studies to listen to this."

"I agree with everything Weiss said, except the studies part." Yang threw in with Blake nodding. It was only Ruby who kept quiet so far.

The adult Ruby rolled her eye at that and reached behind her to grab Crescent Rose in its compact form. She walked up to her younger self and held it out to her. "Give it a look and tell me what you see."

Unsure at first but eager to check out a weapon, young Ruby nodded and unfolded the weapon, first to its rifle form, carefully examining what she could without taking it apart and then again unfolded it once more, this time to its well-known scythe form, again examining it, her eyes wide the entire time.

"Well?" Weiss asked her impatiently.

"There's just a few modifications I could see, mostly to increase the kinetic energy of the rifle part and to adjust the overall size…b-but…from what I could see…this is basically Crescent Rose," Ruby answered, half awed and half in shock.

"What are you saying, Ruby?" Yang asked her, obviously confused.

Shaking herself, Ruby looked at her sister. "This is Crescent Rose. From what I could see, there's just a few adjustments I would do if I, you know, grew up and got taller."

"Pretty much, yeah. My- or, well, _our_ I suppose, fighting style needs Crescent Rose to be big. Once I grew a few inches it got awkward to wield it." She held her hand out to little Ruby who handed her weapon back to her in its compact form before speaking up.

" _Her._ To wield _her_."

Looking at her younger version, Ruby cocked her head to the side. "I kind of grew out of that, to be honest."

"I still find it hard to believe you, _Ms. Rose_ ," Glynda joined the conversation at last. "I can't just accept something so outlandish to be true because someone said so. I admit, you look remarkably like…well, Ms. Rose and Summer Rose, may she rest in peace, but…this simply is so far out there."

"Fair enough," Ruby shrugged. "Teams RWBY and JNPR completed their initiations by defeating a Nevermore and a Deathstalker. The finishing blows came by little Ruby, decapitating the Nevermore after she dragged it up a huge cliffside, and Nora Valkyrie who nailed the stinger of the deathstalker into its skull after Pyrrha Nikos severed it with her shield. I also know that Weiss made little Ruby a coffee- with cream and five sugars- after she felt guilty about doubting little Ruby's leadership qualities and catching her asleep on her bed with textbooks everywhere."

"Really?" Yang gushed at the blushing Schnee heiress. "That's so sweet, Weiss!"

"Yeah, it kind of was." Adult Ruby agreed, still fond of that memory. It was sort of a turning point of the relationship between her and Weiss after all. "All that aside, I also know other valuable things…I know about Salem for instance. I know about her inner circle. I know about their plans. You might as well just call uncle Qrow back since her doesn't need to risk his neck gathering intel I already know about anymore."

At the mention of Salem Professor Goodwitch paled immediately while the teenagers just looked confused, with Ruby and Yang also perking up at the mention of Qrow.

"Do you still have doubts, Glynda?" Ozpin asked after so far only observing what was happening.

"I…I don't know. I don't know what to think."

"Look," adult Ruby stepped in, "I still have a hard time grasping what happened. I fought Salem, she did something, I ran and found myself at Forever Fall, 12 years in the past."

"You fought Salem?" Glynda asked, shocked. "How-?"

Ruby just shook her head. "It was supposed to be the last fight, one way or another. Most of Remnant was destroyed and overran with Grimm. Communication across the continents was dead for _years_. Hunters and Huntresses that weren't already dead became traitors. I was by myself defending Vale with a few…well…let's call them _volunteer fighters_. The future was shit, to be honest."

"What about us?" Blake asked after raising her hand as if she were in class. "If you are really future Ruby there must have been future Yang, Weiss and me as well, right?"

"You all died." Ruby answered, no emotion visible on her face. "As did dad. As did uncle Qrow. Team JNPR. Professor Goodwitch. Oobleck. Port." Staring at the shocked faces, Ruby shrugged. "As I said, the future was shit."

"But now, I think we have a lot to talk about. There's one more reason I called you here, children."

"Ozpin, you are not really-"

Interrupting Professor Goodwitch, adult Ruby spoke up with a clear and hard voice. "During Vytal Festival- _their first year_ -," Ruby began, pointing at team RWBY, "Beacon Academy fell and Beacon Tower got destroyed. Why? Half-truths, lies, secrets. No one knew about anything except for you, Professor Ozpin, uncle Qrow and Ironwood. No one was prepared. No one knew what was going on when an entire armada of Grimm overran the academy. You need at least those four to have some sort of clue about what they will be dealing with! You can't have just four people alone fight against Salem and her inner circle!"

"They are just students!"

"And four of your most talented- if not _the_ most talented- you have."

Team RWBY looked very smug at that comment, causing adult Ruby to roll her eye at them. "Oh, please, you still have a ton to learn. Weiss needs to start training her summon, Blake needs to start embracing her stealthiness and sneaking more, Yang needs to stop relying on her semblance so much and little Ruby needs to stop relying on Crescent Rose so much."

After a series of _hey's_ and _excuse_ _me's_ Ruby turned back to Ozpin. "You can tell them the stories. If you need me to add something I'll just stand over there." She pointed at a corner behind the desk before she walked there and leaned against the wall, her arms crossed over her chest.

The headmaster gave her a nod before telling the students and an apprehensive Glynda to come closer.

"I don't know about this, Ozpin." Glynda threw in in a last attempt to maybe change his mind.

"She isn't wrong, Glynda. Even if what she told us isn't true- and I don't believe she is lying- she still is right about too many secrets. We can't do this on our own." Returning his attention from a resigned Goodwitch to the confused students, gave them a small smile. "Tell me, children. What is your favourite fairy tale?"

* * *

It had taken the better part of an hour to tell the story about the maidens, about Salem and answer the students' questions. Adult Ruby took note of how he refrained to reveal the truth about himself just yet but didn't say anything. Ozpin thanked her for that with a slight nod which she returned with a frown. Maybe they could wait a bit more with that one, even if it made her feel like a hypocrite, but too much information at once for the teens to take in might also not be the best way to approach this.

"This is…a lot." Yang finally spoke up for the rest of her team.

"Magic is really real?"

Ruby looked at her younger self before she nodded. "Yes. I have seen it. Salem uses it. Cinder Fall did too when she stole the full power of the fall maiden. Uncle Qrow and your mother, Raven Branwen," Ruby turned her attention at Yang who gave her a wide-eyed stare, "used it to some extent. They could change into birds. A crow and a raven, ironically enough." Looking at Ozpin, she continued. "I forgot to mention that Raven is the spring maiden. She used one of her most trusted tribe members, a girl named Vernal, as a decoy…or so I was told at least. I don't know what exactly happened but I can tell you for certain that for the past several years in _your_ timeline Raven has been the lost spring maiden."

"Thank you for telling me, though that complicates things as much as it makes them easier." Ozpin then looked back at the teens, feeling a sense of pity at the still shocked look on Yang Xiao Long's face. "Do you girls have any more questions?"

"What exactly is Salem?" Weiss asked, her usually proper posture and stoic nature replaced by a deep thoughtfulness and worry.

"She isn't human…at least not entirely. She has some of the human looks, to some extent, but that's about it. As I said before, she is the queen of Grimms. She controls them, though I can't be sure if it is through some sort of mind control or if they simply obey her."

Ruby, taking over from Ozpin, continued for him. "She is a monster. Impossibly strong, millennia old and…well, for 12 years we tried everything and lost everything. I couldn't defeat her and I honestly don't know if we still can. I mean, I _did_ manage to hurt her with my eye and could possibly have done more if I still had both but she then…did something that just annihilated everything around her and all I could do was run or I would have just been…a literal bloody mess. But with me here we have a chance to better prepare, to stop her plans and to take out those around her bit by bit. Then, when we don't have to worry about dead communications, a full-scale war and her inner circle we may be able to focus on her. Maybe."

"That doesn't exactly sound confident." Blake threw in.

"I've seen what they are capable of. I've seen too much, lost too much to be super positive about this. I will do my best to give you kids the chance to live what your adult selves couldn't but that's all I can do."

"What did you mean with hurting her with your eye?" A very confused Ruby asked her.

Raising an eyebrow, the adult Ruby rubbed the back of her head bashfully. "Ah crap, I completely forgot about that. Your eyes…or well, _our_ eyes are special. Silver eyes are special. They are said to put fear into Grimm, which is somewhat of an exaggeration since they obviously still attack you, but if you know how and are able to use them, you can burn Grimms into dust. When I used them the first time after seeing Pyrrha die-" Shocked gasps from the teens interrupted her, causing her to roll her eyes at them. "She's alive here, isn't she? Anyways, when I saw Pyrrha die at the top of Beacon Tower, I activated them for the first time by accident. I destroyed Cinder's left arm and burned her left eye and froze a dragon Grimm on the tower. If I would have known how to use them like I do now the Grimm and Cinder would have evaporated that night."

"I…can do that?"

"If you know how then yes, you can do unimaginable things with your eyes. The silver colour isn't just there to be pretty to look at, you know."

The little Ruby blushed slightly at that, making adult Ruby give her a small smile.

"What happened to your other eye?" Yang interrupted the moment.

Ruby unconsciously touched the scar before she looked at the blonde. "I had to use my eyes against a big bunch of Nevermores, Deathstalkers and Goliaths. I was the only huntress there with a few conscripts and volunteers. We would have been overrun and they are not so easy to take down by myself. If their number would have been fewer than I could have done it but, well, better safe than sorry. I probably overused it and one eye started to bleed after I got a headache while using them but managed to get most of the Grimm. That eye, though," she touched the scar again, "was basically blind after that. One of Salem's inner circle, a scorpion faunus, gave it the rest when he sliced through it." Shrugging, she touched the closed eyelid, not having been able to open it since then. "It doesn't really matter to me. That eye was basically blind anyways since I used the silver eyes against the Grimm. Seeing almost nothing or seeing nothing- no real difference."

"Well, I am sure this all has been rough on you girls. I can't begin to understand what must be going through your heads right now, your whole perception of the world being changed and challenged like this," Ozpin got up from his seat, looking at the teenagers. "I trust, however, that you understand the trust we put into you four. You cannot tell any of your friends or anyone else about what you were told here. Not without our explicit permission."

The four girls nodded at him, determination visible on their faces.

"What am I going to do from here on, though?" Adult Ruby asked, looking from Ozpin to Glynda and back.

Giving her a small smile, Ozpin simply asked her a question. "How would you feel about a teaching position here at Beacon?"

* * *

 **AN:** Credit where it is due, so a shoutout to **Hysterical Clerical Hijinks** and their fic **Remnant's Reclaimer** , which is my main inspiration and driving force for **Timelines**. The idea with future Ruby teaching at Beacon came from that. However, I won't have Taiyang or Qrow teach at Beacon so there's that.


End file.
